October 15 - Rome

For lunch we decided to try to find the restaurant where we had our first lunch 18 days ago.  After walking two blocks we found a flea market.  It was as good as the Campo de Fiori and a lot closer than the 30 minute walk we took yesterday to get there.  We never did find the restaurant, but the restaurant we did eat at was very good.

You know the expression “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”, well sometimes it just seems wrong.  Today at the restaurant we watched as one of the diners mixed a Coke with their wine.  No way is that going to happen.

We just watched the news and saw that Venice has been flooded because of a high tide and heavy rain.  St. Marks Square is under 10 centimeters of water.

Flood in San Marco, Venice (Newspaper Picture)

Things we’ve learned about Italy

1. You can’t find a bad bottle of wine
2. There is no such thing as too much food at an Italian restaurant
3. Italy measures its history in centuries not decades
4. Driving in Italy is both an art form and a daily suicide mission
5. Don’t blink in Italy as you will miss some masterpiece of art or an important historical building
6. There are more restaurants than churches, but churches occupy more land
7. Street vendors come out at night and are more plentiful than mosquitoes
8. There are good buskers and bad buskers and you are subjected to both at outdoor cafes
9. Graffiti is an urban blight for which there doesn’t seem to be answer
10. There is no such thing as too high heels or too short shorts
11. Trafalgar is not the tour company for those who like to sleep in past sunrise
12. Olive oil is used for cooking everything
13. Despite your best attempt to speak Italian, it will always elicit an English response
14. When crossing the street at a cross walk, stick out your chest and act like you own the road
15. Never trust a travel director on your last day to tell you where you can catch a taxi
16. In a restaurant don’t expect to have a bread and butter plate
17. Be prepared to get lost  when using a city map of Rome, because half the streets are not on the map or street names are not on the streets
18. They have the best sidewalk cafes ever
19. When using the rest rooms be prepared for a new experience every time.  You will find really clean rest rooms to filthy dirty WCs with a hole in the floor and remember to always carry money because for the clean wash rooms you can pay up to €1.50 or $1.95
20. Here they do their laundry every day and hang it on their balconies
21. Italy has beautiful scenery along their coasts
22. It is definitely the country to see mega amount of Roman ruins
23. These are the worst cobblestone streets ever to walk on
24. You will find the best pizza and pasta ever
25. Each four star hotel is different, ranging from the very elegant to the very worn.
26. You can see many couple kissing every where
27. There are lots of weddings everyday of the week
28. Italy is noted for beautiful leather and Morano glass
29. Venice is a wonderful city of water ways
30. Rome is a very busy tourist city, even at the end of the tourist season
31. You can get the best hot chocolate in Italy
32. Some people are very rude and actually push you or bang right into you
33. Never get in a cab in Rome, when the initial conversation is about Formula 1 Racing
34. English language TV is usually CNN International and BBC World Services

Q:        Would we take another Trafalgar tour? 

A:        A big yes!  I can’t imagine that we would have seen as much, learned as much and meet as many people had we planned this trip on our own.  The benefits far outweigh the early mornings, exhausting itineraries and the multiple stops at the “Autogrill”.  I guess that is the difference between an adventure and a vacation.

Q:        Highlights of the trip

A:        Brian - Sorrento, Almalfi Coast and Capri

           Marg - Venice